The Hill’s Morning Report — Manchin keeps everyone guessing on next move

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 07/18/23 6:49 AM ET

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is keeping his colleagues guessing about his political future. 

The West Virginia Democrat on Monday took the stage at a No Labels event in New Hampshire, where he spoke about his thoughts on the state of politics, and left political observers wondering whether he’ll run for another Senate term in 2024 or challenge President Biden as a third-party presidential candidate. 

The Washington-based advocacy organization is looking to recruit a Democrat and a Republican to form a “unity” presidential ticket in 2024 — which could upend the 2024 presidential race, currently likely to be a rematch between Biden and former President Trump.

Manchin in interviews continues to entertain a third-party presidential run, which means  Democrats fret about holding the Senate majority and whether Manchin, if he opts to become a third-party presidential contender, would siphon votes away from Biden and hand the White House to a Republican in 2025. 

Manchin said Monday he was in New Hampshire to reach out to voters who are fed up with a hyperpartisan status quo. He defended No Labels’s plans to secure a third-party presidential ticket, arguing it would not be a “spoiler” (WMUR).

The West Virginia centrist said the two major political parties have “receded” to the “extreme” edges of the political spectrum. 

“We’re here to make sure that the American people have an option, and the option is can you move the political parties off their respective sides — they’ve gone too far right and too far left,” he said. “This is not about me or anybody else. It’s about two parties that have gone to their respective side, the extreme right and extreme left, and the middle has been left behind. There’s no voice for the middle.”

The event also featured former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R), who sought the 2012 GOP presidential nomination and told NBC News he has “no plans at this point” to run on a third-party ticket in 2024.

No Labels founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson told NBC News that the group is near its fundraising goal of $70 million, which will go toward its efforts to gain ballot access for its hypothetical presidential ticket in all 50 states. No Labels is scheduled to hold a convention next April in Dallas, where it will formally nominate its ticket. No Labels has described its efforts as an “insurance policy” in the 2024 presidential election, vowing to drop its bid if either party manages to provide a candidate whom centrist voters can accept.

As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports, Manchin only raised $1.3 million in the second quarter of 2023, giving him $10.7 million in cash on hand. While that number is impressive for West Virginia, it falls far short of what would be needed for a presidential campaign. The Biden-Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the combined Biden Victory Fund raked in $72 million in the second quarter. 

Mother Jones: No Labels says it’s not a political party. But it’s setting up state parties. Democrats and Never-Trump GOPers are worried about the group’s 2024 plans.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has sparked division in his conference by embracing the right-wing drive to try to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland, among other administration officials, write The Hill’s Emily Brooks and Rebecca Beitsch. In a year where the GOP has been most steadily focused on possible impeachments of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas or Biden, McCarthy often has been the voice urging the conference to move patiently and deliberately. 

But he has shown more vigor when eyeing Garland, an official leading an agency often derided by the GOP but a figure less frequently cited by the party’s members who are most keen on impeachment. Some have questioned whether there is a legal basis for impeaching Garland, while others have pointed to different cabinet secretaries who should be reviewed first.

“I don’t know of a chargeable crime,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told The Hill.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis will be interviewed today on CNN, his first discussion with a major news organization other than Fox News as he looks to reset his campaign amid signs of weakness in the polls (The Hill). 

2024 politics roundup: Who’s in the first GOP debate next month? Here’s a rundown of candidates who qualify (USA Today). … Biden’s reelection campaign adds three familiar allies to leadership roles: Rufus Gifford, Cedric Richmond and Chris Korge (CNBC). … Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Democratic presidential bid has attracted campaign cash from Silicon Valley money men, who love contrarians (The Wall Street Journal)… Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has released a conservative pool of Supreme Court picks (NBC News). … Bob Vander Plaats, the Iowa evangelical leader with a tendency for backing the state’s Republican presidential primary winner, is urging his party to rally behind a single challenger to Trump (The Daily Beast). 

Trump world: Today’s courtroom pretrial conference to discuss procedures for handling classified information five weeks after Trump’s federal indictment will represent the first back-and-forth in the case handled by District Judge Aileen Cannon. It could offer clues about how she weighs a schedule for Trump’s trial as he campaigns for president. Trump is pushing for after next year’s election; the Justice Department proposed Dec. 11 (The Associated Press). … The Georgia Supreme Court Monday declined to take up an effort from Trump to quash an investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state (The Hill). … The former president and his allies are forging a 2025 plan to expand presidential power and to limit the independence of federal agencies if he’s elected (The New York Times). … Trump blamed former Cabinet members during a Fox News broadcast Sunday with Maria Bartiromo for his failure as president to drain “the swamp,” one of his election pledges. Over the weekend, he called former Attorney General William Barr “weak and pathetic.” He described fired former Defense Secretary Mark Esper as “incompetent.” Both men publicly split with Trump during his presidency with criticism about his decision making.

Related Articles

▪ ProPublica: How Republican billionaire donor Harlan Crow slashed his tax bill by taking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on super yacht cruises.

▪ Vox: How the Supreme Court put itself in charge of the executive branch.

▪ The Hill: Conservative politicians who envision cutting taxpayer spending for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are trying to legislate against the tide of public opinion.

LEADING THE DAY

➤ ADMINISTRATION 

© The Associated Press / Michel Euler | Then-Vice President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016 at a Davos, Switzerland, summit.

Ahead of an Oval Office meeting this afternoon with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Biden during a Monday phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu gave the prime minister something he’s coveted since his return to power late last year: an invitation to visit the White House.

Netanyahu, 73, had felt snubbed and the invitation is intended to ease tensions between allies who know each other and have their pointed differences. U.S. concerns about judicial reforms in Israel and some of Netanyahu’s Cabinet members “are still valid,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Biden recently described Netanyahu’s coalition government as “one of the most extremist” since the 1970s and voiced particular opposition to Netanyahu’s decisions to undermine the power of Israel’s Supreme Court, construct more Israeli homes in the occupied West Bank, and retroactively authorize Israeli settlements built in the territory without government approval, The New York Times reported.

Herzog will speak to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday and will meet with the secretary of state.

Times of Israel analysis: Herzog faces a national challenge and personal opportunity.

Debate in the U.S. about Middle East policy remains vigorous. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a supporter of Palestinian rights, over the weekend called Israel “a racist state,” words she retracted under intense criticism, including from Democratic colleagues. She later apologized and said she does not believe “the idea of Israel as a nation is racist” (The Hill).

McCarthy, who traveled to Israel April 30 with a 20-member congressional delegation and became the second Speaker since Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich in 1998 to address the Knesset, advised Democrats Monday to “do something” about antisemitic remarks by members of their caucus (The Hill).

McCarthy, who is eager to enlarge divisions with the Democratic caucus after months of dissections of House GOP intraparty feuds, wants to punish progressives by forcing a floor vote today that would put members on the record on Israel (Politico). Punchbowl News reports that late on Monday, 43 Democrats issued a House statement reacting to Jayapal’s remarks, saying they will “never allow anti-Zionist voices that embolden antisemitism to undermine and disrupt the strongly bipartisan consensus supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship that has existed for decades.”

Pentagon oops: A simple typo caused millions of U.S. military emails containing sensitive information to be misdirected to Mali, a close ally of Russia and employer of the Wagner mercenary group, The Financial Times reports. The emails were sent to Maili’s .ML domain due to people incorrectly typing the suffix of all American military email addresses, which is .MIL. None of the misdirected emails was marked classified but many contained highly sensitive information about U.S. military personnel and installations, including base staff lists, medical data and identity documents, according to FT.

Cybersecurity: The Biden administration announced it is partnering with manufacturers and major electronics retailers to create a cyber “trust mark,” or identifier on smart devices, to help consumers select internet- or Bluetooth-connected products that come with cybersecurity fortifications (The Hill).

➤ CONGRESS

© The Associated Press / Mariam Zuhaib | Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) on July 12.

Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former college football coach of renown, discovered that his one-man Senate blockade against Pentagon nominees and promotions as a strategy to try to halt a Pentagon abortion travel policy is applauded at home. So are remarks he made and then defended during interviews with NPR and CNN questioning whether white nationalists are racist. He may be battered by criticism, including among Republican Senate colleagues, inside the nation’s capital but not among Alabama admirers who see Biden calling him out during public events, according to reporting by The Hill’s Al Weaver. 

“I think he’s doing better because of it,” Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) said, noting that Alabama is largely pro-life and conservative. “They love the fact that he’s standing [up]. … I think that coach is going to benefit from it.” 

The Associated Press: Alabama state Republicans on Monday defied a June Supreme Court order to redraw congressional maps and rejected a call to create a second majority-Black House district. 

Democratic watchdog group Congressional Integrity Project asked House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) Monday to rescind a select subcommittee’s Thursday invitation to Kennedy Jr. to testify about censorship — following the Democratic primary candidate’s controversial COVID-19 remarks in New York City over the weekend, which were condemned as racist, antisemitic and knowingly based on falsehoods. Kennedy says his remarks, captured on video, were misrepresented (The Associated Press). 

House Democrats’ campaign arm blasted Kennedy for what it described as antisemitic and anti-Asian “racism and hate,” and on Monday declared the namesake son of assassinated presidential candidate and New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy “unfit for public office” (The Hill). The White House slammed Kennedy Jr.’s weekend remarks, published by the New York Post, as “vile” (The Hill).

▪ Fox Business: Jordan is considering holding Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress for failure to provide the House Judiciary Committee with information requested about the company’s alleged censorship.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) predicted in a Monday tweet that if Republicans control the House and Senate after 2024, they would “100 percent” approve a national ban on abortion.

▪ The New York Times: House Democrats face long odds while trying to pass a planned censure resolution against New York GOP Rep. George Santos, who is seeking reelection amid a series of legal and ethics charges. 

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ INTERNATIONAL

Russia struck Ukraine’s port of Odesa with missiles and drones on Tuesday, a day after pulling out of a U.N.-backed deal to let Kyiv export grain (The Associated Press and Reuters). The deal allowed Ukraine to export grain by sea, with ships bypassing a Russian blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports and navigating safe passage through the waterway to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait in order to reach global markets. According to the European Commission, Ukraine accounts for 10 percent of the world wheat market, 15 percent of the corn market, and 13 percent of the barley market. It is also a key global player in the market of sunflower oil. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a U.N. body, warned at the time of the deal’s implementation that as many as 47 million people could be pushed into “acute food insecurity” because of the war (CNN).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week accused Russia of using the grain deal “as a weapon,” while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS on Monday that “Russia has been slowly killing the grain initiative, from one extension to another. Prices for grain all across the world will go up, and people in the most vulnerable regions of Asia, Africa, will feel it.”

A Ukrainian strike early Monday disabled the only road bridge connecting Russia with the occupied Crimean Peninsula, once again hitting a major symbol of President Vladimir Putin’s rule and constricting Russian supplies to the front lines in southern Ukraine (The Wall Street Journal).

Meanwhile, more mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner military contractor entered Belarus on Monday, according to a monitoring group, continuing their relocation to the ex-Soviet nation following last month’s short-lived mutiny. Belarus’s strongman President Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Moscow who brokered a deal that ended last month’s rebellion launched by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said that his country’s military could benefit from the mercenaries’ combat experience (The Associated Press).

▪ The New York Times: Where is China’s foreign minister? Beijing won’t clear up the mystery.

▪ The Associated Press: A heat wave in southern Europe generates health warnings for residents and tourists.

▪ BBC: Excessive heat globally — why this summer has been so hot. 

OPINION

■ Electric vehicles are coming. The UAW must adapt, by Chicago Tribune editorial board.

■ Will Trump show for the first GOP debate? by Juan Williams, opinion contributor, The Hill. 

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at 10 a.m. 

The Senate will convene at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Rachel Bloomekatz to be a United States circuit judge for the 6th Circuit. 

The president at 10 a.m. will receive the President’s Daily Brief. Biden will hold a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office with Israel’s president  at 1:15 p.m. The president at 5 p.m. will meet with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Pope Francis’s peace envoy for Ukraine, in the Oval Office (The Associated Press). 

Vice President Harris will meet at 1:10 p.m. with a group of state attorneys general to discuss actions to address the fentanyl public health crisis.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Gandhinagar, India, where she will participate in the third session of the Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, focused on international financial architecture, and the fourth session about international taxation. In the afternoon, Yellen will participate in the fifth session of the gathering, about the financial sector and financial inclusion. The secretary will depart India for Hanoi, Vietnam. 

Secretary Blinken will meet in Washington with President Herzog.

First lady Jill Biden will be in Georgia and Pennsylvania today. She will arrive in Augusta, Ga., at 12:30 p.m. joined by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk for a meeting with local officials about advanced manufacturing jobs. The first lady will travel to Pittsburgh in the afternoon and be joined by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su for a meeting at 4:15 p.m. with local stakeholders about jobs in infrastructure.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is en route to New Zealand for events this week. 

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

ELSEWHERE

➤ LIBRARIES

© The Associated Press / Pablo Martinez Monsivais | Then-President Barack Obama at Long Branch Elementary library in Arlington, Va., in 2010.

📚 Former President Barack Obama is pro-books and pro-libraries — and he’s venturing where young people flock in order to advocate for the valued public benefit libraries and librarians deliver. He’s a cameo star this week in four TikTok videos, according to his office, collaborating with accounts run and videos created by local libraries in Texas, Maryland, California and Illinois to promote access to books (The Washington Post). 

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom reported 2022 data chronicling 1,269 demands to censor books and resources, the highest number of attempted book bans since data was first gathered two decades ago. The former president (also a bestselling author) tweeted how books helped shape his life. “Librarians are on the front lines, fighting every day to make the widest possible range of viewpoints, opinions, and ideas available to everyone,” Obama wrote in a “thank you” message.  

➤ HEALTH & WELLBEING

🧠 In a study of more than 1,700 people, the experimental drug Donanemab slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s by about 35 percent, scientists reported at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam. That rate doubles to 60 percent if the drug is started when patients are only mildly impaired.

The study, published simultaneously in the journal JAMA, suggests that Donanemab is at least as effective as the newly approved drug Leqembi (lecanemab), which was found to reduce progression of the disease by about 27 percent. But experts caution that the drug isn’t a cure, and that its benefit amounts to only about a seven-month delay in the loss of memory and thinking. Eli Lilly, the drug’s manufacturer, expects it will be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year (Sky News and NPR).

“I do think that will make a difference to people,” Reisa Sperling, who directs the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told NPR. “But we have to do better.”

💉 Meanwhile, FDA has approved a treatment for the prevention of RSV, a respiratory virus, among infants and toddlers, making it the first preventive drug for the common infection that surged last winter among small children. The FDA approved nirsevimab-alip, or Beyfortus, for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) among newborns and infants born during or entering into their first RSV season, which typically starts in the fall, peaks in the winter and ends in the spring (The Hill).

CNET: If you have one of these health conditions, take extra care in the heat.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / AP images for Humana Inc. | National Senior Games track athlete Willie Spruill, 64, center, and competitors in the 50M dash July 11 in Pittsburgh. 

And finally … To borrow a slogan, they’re just doing it. Close to 12,000 competitors aged 50 and older have been diving into pools, sprinting down a track, slicing racquets across competitive courts and showing off their basketball layups in Pittsburgh this month, among many impressive performances in sports (NPR) And they have medals to show for it, along with some knee braces and perhaps some liniment.

The 2023 National Senior Games began July 7 and concludes today. 

“It’s a little bit disappointing as you’re aging [and you] can’t move as quickly, because that’s what I am accustomed to,” said basketball player Sheila Bingham, who traveled with her team from Jackson, Tenn. “We actually have a player that’s 82,” she added. “She is my motivator. When I see her, I can’t quit. I’m encouraged to do more and keep playing” (WESA-FM).

▪ The Bismarck Tribune: Julie Bosch, 62, of North Dakota took home the gold at the Senior Games in the women’s 1500-meter dash and the women’s 5K road race in her age group. 

▪ King5: 70-year-old Madonna Hanna of Tacoma, Wash., brought home the Senior Games gold with her track and field team in the 4x100m relay.

▪ Local12: Warren County, Ohio’s Robert Arledge, 90, won gold in the men’s 100-yard backstroke in his age bracket and silver in the men’s pole vault.

▪ CBS News/KDKA: Rachel Williams, 89, of Pittsburgh took up table tennis when the pandemic hit and qualified to compete in the Senior Games this summer.

▪ WSOC-TV: Nancy Fish of North Carolina competed in racquetball and captured the silver medal in doubles in her age group and won bronze for women’s singles in the 70+ demographic in Pittsburgh. 

▪ TribLive: Paula Franetti, 67, of Pittsburgh helped her teammates win basketball gold, a sport that helped her recover from back and pelvis injuries after a car accident.

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch. Follow us on Twitter (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!